Digital Affordances, Spatial Affordances, and the Genesis of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
Forthcoming in Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal Special Issue on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
45 Pages Posted: 20 Jul 2017
Date Written: July 14, 2017
Abstract
Entrepreneurial ecosystems command increasing attention from policy-makers, academics, and practitioners, yet the phenomenon itself remains under-theorized. Specifically, the conceptual similarities and differences of entrepreneurial ecosystems relative to, e.g., clusters, ‘knowledge clusters’, regional systems of innovation, and ‘innovative milieus’ remain unclear. Drawing on research on industrial districts and agglomerations, clusters, and systems of innovation, we suggest that entrepreneurial ecosystems differ from traditional clusters by their emphasis on the exploitation of digital affordances; by their organization around entrepreneurial opportunity discovery and pursuit; by their emphasis on business model innovation; by voluntary horizontal knowledge spillovers; and by cluster-external locus of entrepreneurial opportunities. We highlight how these distinctive characteristics set entrepreneurial ecosystems apart from other cluster types, propose a structural model of entrepreneurial ecosystems, summarize the papers in this special issue, and suggest promising avenues for future research.
Keywords: entrepreneurial ecosystem, digital affordance, spatial affordance, business model innovation, architectural knowledge, startup, scaleup, cluster
JEL Classification: M13, L26, O33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation